chesilbeach

Thanks for the review - these sound like a good series of books, the sort of thing I like to read on holiday. Desperately trying not to add any more to my TBR pile at the moment, but if I get through enough this spring, I might add these to my holiday reading list.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I got it for Christmas and read it in a day (as I had the flu and was just stuck in the armchair in front of the fire all day), and totally enjoyed it. was done really well, and obviously showed that she had researched this properly. I don't know if I'm the only one, but although it was the Shopaholic series that got me reading Sophie Kinsella, I've actually enjoyed the other books of hers more than the Shopaholic ones.

I've also read more books since I had a major illness, but it's also when I started being able to stop reading a book I wasn't enjoying. I still try and read until at least a third of the way through, but if authors (and editors, who are just as guilty as the author sometimes) are not entertaining me or just plain annoying me, then I don't want to finish their books, even if there is a possibility they get better towards the end. If I'm not enjoying a book, then I take longer to read it, which means it is the double edged sword of not liking the book I'm reading, and stopping me reading two or three other books I might enjoy more in the time it takes me to finish that one awful book. Life's too short!

Life's too short (and my TBR pile too big) to read a book I'm not enjoying. I'll try and read at least a third of the book, but if I'm finding it too tedious, I will give up earlier. In the last four years, I've given up on 15 books and finished 246.

So far this year I've read: Two Caravans - Marina Lewycka The Road Home - Rose Tremain Queen Lucia - E. F. Benson I've just finished Miss Mapp by E. F. Benson today, which was a gem, and I'm absolutely loving the Mapp and Lucia series. I've also had a purge of my TBR list, simply because there are some books that have been on the list for four years, and I still don't feel the inclination to start them, so I've reduced the list to 78 books, but there are a further 14 on my wishlist. I'm still hoping to reduce my TBR pile to 20 before the end of the year, and to not buy anymore books until I've done that!

I'm exactly the same - I read the entire Alex Rider series in one long weekend a few years ago!

Currently just 15, but I'm (almost) determined not to buy anymore until I reduce my TBR list by about two thirds!

It's such a useful site, especially for finding out the order of a series of books, and for recommending other writers you might like if you like a particular author.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. Hadn't been expecting to, but started on a Saturday morning, and couldn't put it down, finishing it the same evening. It seems to divide opinion among my friends, with some loving it, and other thinking it was "a bit meh". I thought it was very original, well written and utterly compelling.

I've never read any Cecelia Ahern books, but someone bought me this one last Chrismtas (2007) and I still haven't picked it up to read yet, despite it being the first one on the bookshelf each time I look for something new. Doesn't look promising from what everyone has written though.

Any cafe or coffee shop works for me, with a lovely smooth latte or a gorgeous frothy cappuccino. At home, it's in my armchair, which has nice high arm rests, so I can support my arms while holding up any particularly heavy hardbacks. I can't read in bed - I need to be properly awake while I read, otherwise I forget what I've read and just read the same pages over and over again each night, so reading the book ends up like a never ending Groundhog Day!

I remember finding this book very satisfying and enjoying it a lot, and have subsequently bought For One More Day for my TBR pile, but for some reason I keep putting off starting it. I think perhaps I liked The Five People You Meet In Heaven so much that I'm worried I'll be disappointed.

One of my guilty pleasures last year was reading the Twilight series over the summer. Over my two week holiday (when it poured with rain most of the time!), I read the books three times in a row. I know they're not very well written and there are faults with the books, and I know that as someone who is well past her teenage years these books aren't aimed at me, but they completely captivated me! I think I'll be keeping these on my bookshelves - no charity shop for this lot!

I think all the independent book sellers in my area have closed down now. The last one I can think of closed last year, leaving only the chains in my area - Waterstones, Borders, Blackwell and WHSmith. As much as I mourn the closure of the independents, with the amount of books I buy, I just couldn't afford to shop in them all the time, and have to rely on the 3 for 2 offers of the chains, or the discounted prices online. Having said that, like other people have mentioned, I never buy books from WHSmith either. I can't even put my finger on why I don't buy there, but I think it's because it feels like the books are just another product, and on the whole, there's no knowledge in the staff about the books they're selling, whereas at least with the other stores, you feel like they make the effort to encourage the staff to have some interest and knowledge in the books themselves.

This is a comment from Stephenie on her website: "I have a good idea of how the leak happened as there were very few copies of Midnight Sun that left my possession and each was unique. Due to little changes I made to the manuscript at different times, I can tell when each left my possession and to whom it was given. The manuscript that was illegally distributed on the Internet was given to trusted individuals for a good purpose. I have no comment beyond that as I believe that there was no malicious intent with the initial distribution."

Currently reading: Missing: Safe House by Meg Cabot Finished (143): Two Caravans by Marina Lewycka The Road Home by Rose Tremain Lucia Rising: Queen Lucia by E. F. Benson Lucia Rising: Miss Mapp by E. F. Benson Lucia Rising: Lucia In London by E. F. Benson The Girl From The Chartreuse by Pierre Pej

I have to take the price label and/or "3 for 2" (or any other type) of sticker off the cover of a book, and if the glue sticks to the cover, I will have to get something to wash it off before I can start to read it.

I tend to listen to radio via podcasts or iPlayer rather than live radio, that way I can catch all the programmes on while I'm at work or asleep, which are usually the more interesting ones! Podcasts: Radio 1 - Chris Moyles Radio 2 - Chris Evans, Claudia Winkleman's Arts Show, Jonathan Ross, Steve Wright Radio 4 - The Archers, Friday Night Comedy, Ramblings Five Live - Daily Mayo, Book Reviews with Simon Mayo, Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo's Film Reviews 6 Music - Adam and Joe, Jon Richardson Plus on the iPlayer, I'll listen to Radio 4 book programmes: Open Book Book Club A Good Read

Oh no! I was determined not to add any more books to my wish list until I'd got my TBR pile down lower, but after loving Ingo when I read it in 2006, I'm now going to have to to put The Tide Knot at the top of my wishlist!

Though the sun was hot on this July morning Mrs Lucas preferred to cover the half-mile that lay between the station and her house on her own feet, and sent on her maid and her luggage in the fly that her husband had ordered to meet her. Lucia Rising - E. F. Benson

I enjoyed this book, because the subject matter was interesting and something I'd never read about. I had no idea leprosy was still around in the 20th century, as I'd always assumed it was a medieval disease, so I was fascinated by this novel. It's an easy read, nothing too challenging, and would make an ideal holiday read.

I've got this on my TBR pile, but I haven't read Case Histories - do I need to read that first, or can I plough straight into One Good Turn?

I really enjoy the 44 Scotland Street novels. For me, they're the literary equivalent of a soap opera (something I don't watch on TV), and I find them utterly charming! I love the mix of different characters, and how their stories overlap, and because the story was originally written as a daily newspaper column, it means the author has had to make sure that each chapter has enough content to keep you interested, and include a cliff hanger to make you want to come back and read again the next day. As with all Alexander McCall Smith's novels based in Edinburgh, it gives a generally warm, romantic view of the city, much like Richard Curtis does for London in his films - very good for the tourist industry, I suspect!

I didn't enjoy this book very much, as for some reason I couldn't stick with it for more than about 20 minutes at a time and I kept getting distracted. While the main characters were interesting, I was not compelled by them, and I felt that while there were three main protagonists, Odenigbo and Kainene were also essential to the plot, yet they weren't given their own chapters, and they felt underwritten and there was not enough of their characters development. For me, it didn

This is a completely lovely little book, a warm and comfortingly funny read. I've never read any other Alan Bennett, although I've always wanted to, as whenever I see him interviewed, he comes across as a very interesting man. I have another of his books at home, so maybe when I've cleared by TBR pile a bit more, I'll try and read that one as well.